Decrespignite-Y

specimen number:
2133231

location:
Paratoo Mine, Petersborough, South Australia, Australia

description:
From the type locality for the species, micro crystallized in massive quite rich across the front of matrix. A good example for the species.

The Paratoo Mine, located near Peterborough in the Olary Province of South Australia, is a historic copper prospect situated within a complex geological setting of Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks. Geologically, the site is famous for its unique secondary mineralization, which occurred as copper-rich fluids interacted with rare-earth element (REE) bearing host rocks, leading to a suite of exotic carbonate and oxalate minerals. It is the type locality for decrespignyite-Y, a very rare hydrated copper yttrium rare-earth carbonate chloride. This mineral typically forms as tiny, pearly, pseudo-hexagonal plates or as attractive, robin-egg blue to turquoise-colored crusts and coatings on a slate or quartz matrix. Historically, the mine was a small-scale operation worked briefly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with most activity occurring around 1889 to 1900.

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